The CBI questioned Satya Pal Malik for nearly five hours on Friday about an alleged medical insurance scam in Jammu and Kashmir, which had come to light after Malik said he had been offered bribes to clear the files when he was governor, officials said.
The CBI had summoned the former Jammu and Kashmir governor in the matter days after he said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had silenced him when, hours after the 2019 Pulwama massacre, he had blamed the Centre’s lapses for the tragedy.
After the latest CBI notice to him, Malik had tweeted: "I have exposed the sins of some people by speaking the truth. Maybe that's why I have been called. I am the son of a farmer, I will not panic. I stand by the truth."
A CBI team arrived at Malik’s Delhi residence around 11.45am to seek clarifications over his claims and the questioning continued for nearly five hours, officials said.
This is the second time in eight months that Malik has been questioned by the CBI. Officials, however, clarified that Malik was not an accused or a suspect in the case so far.
The CBI had recorded Malik’s statement last October, by when his stints as governor of Bihar, Jammu and Kashmir, Goa and Meghalaya had ended.
The agency has registered two FIRs in connection with corruption allegations levelled by Malik. They involve the award of contracts for a group medical insurance scheme for government employees, and for Rs 2,200-crore worth of civil works related to the Kiru hydel project in Jammu and Kashmir.
Malik had claimed he had been offered bribes of Rs 150 crore each to clear the two files during his tenure as Jammu and Kashmir governor between August 23, 2018, and October 30, 2019.
The CBI has booked Reliance General Insurance and Trinity Re-Insurance Brokers Limited as the accused in the FIR on the medical insurance scheme, which Malik had eventually scrapped.
The FIR alleges that unnamed officials of the Jammu and Kashmir finance department had abused their positions and connived with Trinity, Reliance General Insurance and other unknown public servants and private persons to commit criminal conspiracy and criminal misconduct.
